Playing in the snow and we visit Bitburg

Fresh snow has fallen last night, but after breakfast Esmee wants to play with her food set first and an elaborate meal is prepared with plastic fakes. She has a lively imagination and it is a long course meal where we also have to wait regularly because something is not yet cooked. She can play on her own quite well but likes to include us.

But then we go outside to play in the snow. And for Esmee this also means that she has to lie down in the snow and roll over like the collar bear we saw in the zoo yesterday. Elisabeth looks from the doorway for a moment, but she finds it too cold and quickly returns inside. We start with an old-fashioned snowball fight and we run around the house, chasing each other.

After that it is time to make snowmen but soon it becomes a fight where we have to destroy the building of the other as quickly as possible. I lose, of course, especially after when Esmee manages to get hold on my gloves. Brrrr, it is cold with bare hands in the snow.

Then we drive a bit, direction Bitburg that lies west of us. Because of all volcanic activity in the past and rivers that descend in the landscape, the Eifel is hilly to mountainous and we have a beautiful view of the snowy landscape. This area is ideal for beautiful walks but today we do not feel like it.

Bitburg was once a resting place on the route from Lyon to Cologne. From that time on, it was first developed into a Roman army camp where the center of the city now stands. In 1239 Bitburg was first mentioned as a city in a treaty and that it was near the borders of empires and countries becomes clear when you read about history. The city was often taken over by others and in 1794 still belonged to France. Only with the treaty of Vienna from 1815 did it finally became part of Germany.

Lies and I are not believers but we were educated in a christian way and churches are part of our western historical and cultural heritage so we want to show Esmee a church. She finds it interesting but also a bit intimidating. And she can not imagine that we had to sit on those hard benches twice a week for an hour. She now understands better why grandma often has a backache!
It is funny to see how relaxed she is, standing with her hands on her back, she does not have that attitude learned from us, nor from her parents.

In the center of Bitburg there are a number of images of children dressed as goats. When the city was once besieged by Sweden, people sent children in goatskin to the wall so that the enemy would think there was enough to eat in the city. Of course that was not the case, but the Swedes fell for it and thought that it could take a long time before they could conquer the city and so they went away.

But we do more than just see cultural things because this holiday is also for Esmee although we do have the agreement that we mainly do things that all three of us like and occasionally something that only 1 or 2 of us like. So we spend the afternoon in an indoor playground and she has a great time at all merry-go-rounds, air cushions, climbing frames and so on. And she gets her face painted with a butterfly.

Back at the house we go swim for a while. That is something Elisabeth does not like but Esmee and I are fond of water so we usually do that together. The pool is rather boring, just rectangular but Esmee has a lot of imagination and always knows how to invent games in which she is a lost mermaid or something like that and I often have to be a bad shark or a man who is afraid of mermaids. Sometimes it's a bit less fun when she starts screaming pretending to drown and I have to explain to the lifeguard or teacher that it really is only a fantasy game.

Grandma has the food ready when we come out of the pool and Esmee takes care of her own delicacy, the apple sauce.
In the evening we light the fireplace, which we all find cozy and I have to read her stories by the fire for a long time. Today was not a very busy day but we had a nice time again.